The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Mathuras bond with Sikhs on a special day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Mathuras bond with Sikhs on a special day

S. Harpal Singh

To commemorate 300 years of ‘Granth’ consecration

Mathuras of Bhutai village to observe Simran Diwas on Nov. 15
Kalu Baba, of Mathura tribe had scripted verses from Guru Granth Sahib

Enshrined texts: The ‘Gutka’ manuscripts at the Kalu Baba temple in Bhutai village of Adilabad district

ADILABAD: Mathuras from Bhutai, a tiny village in Bazarhatnoor mandal of Adilabad district are getting ready to participate in the year-long Sikh celebrations to commemorate 300 years of consecration of Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal Sikh Guru at Nanded.

The Mathura herdsmen, considered part of the Banjara community, had close ties with Sikhs since the advent of Sikhism, the world’s youngest religion.

Bhutai’s Kalu Baba temple with its set of 300-year-old, eight ‘Gutka’ manuscripts (chapter-wise extracts from the Guru Granth Sahib), provides an inkling into the strong ties these two communities enjoyed.

The manuscripts were written by the saintly Kalu Baba of Mathura community, a contemporary of Guru Gobind Singh. Nanded, where the 10th Sikh guru had consecrated the Guru Granth Sahib also has the Kalu Baba temple close to the Nagina ghat gurudwara where the Gutkas were believed to have been written. “We inherited the Gutkas from our fore fathers. We hold these extracts of the Guru Granth sacred because Kalu Baba’s devotion of Guru Gobind Singh made him script the Gutkas”, said Mr. Bal Singh Ajhade, custodian of the Kalu Baba temple.

“The Banjaras or Mathuras were in charge of supplies to Sikh armies that were constantly at war with the Mughals. When Guru Gobind Singh came to Nanded in June 1708, they followed him and it is said they had retrieved much of the lost Sikh literature from flooding Sirsa river in Punjab while Guru Gobind Singh and his army were crossing it.

Guruji appreciated this effort and said, “Rang rete, Guru ke bete”, (Banjaras were called Rang rete) said Ravinder Singh Modi, journalist at Nanded. The Mathuras who had settled down at Bhutai long ago will observe Simran Diwas on Nov. 15.

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